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SERVICE OF HOLY WORSHIP December 4, 2016 11:00 am Second Sunday of Advent Sermon: “Dancing With The Lord” Rev. Gary Dalton Scripture: Luke 1:39-55 Jubilate Presents Selected Anthems from the Service of Lessons and Carols Pesonet Hodie — arr. Rutter Eternal Rose — Lantz O magnum mysterium — Palestrina Here Mid the Ass and Oxen Mild — arr. Shaw/Parker Allon gay bergeres — Costeley Silent Night — arr. Rutter Rejoice and Be Merry — arr. Rutter Deacons: *Erin Brown, Alan Hendricks, Alice Batten, Bill Jesser, Carolyn Lowry, Donna Marshall, Ed Smith, Johnny Ellen, Wellford Tiller Nursery Workers: Judy Gough, Mary Jo Hendricks, Ewing Minor, Emily Morris Children’s Church: Debby Johnson, Taraneh Brown Ushers for December: Shirley Clark, Martha Wood, Jack Wilkerson, Joyce Martin Greeters: Martha Ballenger, Brett Lissenden Medical On-call: Clara Belle Wheeler A Bridge Across We’ll take our time as we need and want, we’ll linger only to see what we can see, then we’ll move along to the other end of the Bridge, to meet whomever the next Senior Minister should be. UNIVERSITY BAPTIST CHURCH CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA The Word November 29, 2016 Vol. 68, No. 46 Service of Remembrance Wednesday, November 30 6:15 pm in Fellowship Hall This will be a service to remember our departed loved ones, to support each other in our pain and loss during this holiday season, and to support our community during this time of unusual stress. Candles will be lit to acknowledge family and friends, our pain and loss, our worries and struggles, and God’s faithfulness in our lives. Jubilate Presents Sunday, December 4, 11:00 am SELECTED ANTHEMS FROM THE SERVICE OF One of the truly influential books in my young adult life was The Education of Henry Adams. As I entered mid-life, one of the most significant sculptures to cap- ture my imagination was Augustus Saint- Gaudens’ work entitled The Mystery of the Hereafter and The Peace of God that Passeth Understanding, or as the public later more simply called it, “Grief.” Pictured here is Saint Gaudens’ shrouded figure, head bowed, passive, en- during, caught in a forever- encounter with loss. I first saw a model of the bust of Saint-Gaudens’ The Mystery of the Hereafter while touring the Musee d’Orsay on a 1997 visit Karen and I made to Paris. There, I learned that Henry Adams commissioned Saint-Gaudens to execute this work for the grave of Adams’ wife, Marian, who had died by suicide in 1885. Long suffering from depression, Marian ended her life by drinking a highly poisonous chemical she used for her own art as an accomplished photographer. Saint-Gaudens’ work of its own beauty and force drew me and held me that day in the Orsay. Learning of its inspiration and commission in the tragedy of Henry Adams’ wife’s death confirmed its im- portance for me. A few years later, on a day trip to Washington, D.C., Karen and our children patiently made the search with me to find Marian Adams’ gravesite in Rock Creek Cemetery. We found it and spent time sitting before this memori- al which people call “Grief” and which the artist called, The Mystery of the Hereafter and The Peace of God that Passeth Understanding. Few people can afford to commission an artist of Saint-Gaudens’ caliber, as Henry Adams did, for their loved one’s memori- al. Not many of us can pay the price to gain what comfort this tangible, enduring statement offered Adams to declare his profound love for Marian and his deep grief over his wife’s death. Instead, we of modest means must work our own testimonies of grief, chip- ping away, sculpting an inner memorial to erect within our hearts. These self-hewn monuments are an every-person’s work of art, a commission which death compels us to exe- cute for ourselves. They also share the title, The Mystery of the Hereafter and The Peace of God that Passeth Un- derstanding. They are our work called “Grief.” Occasionally, as Henry Adams must have done, we visit the site of our testimonies of love and loss. We make this pilgrim- age and sit, wondering, remembering, reflecting, perhaps considering how our loved ones are experiencing God’s Here- after. We pray to dip again into this Peace of God Beyond Understanding for which we are grateful. I hope this Wednesday evening’s Service of Remembrance might offer you this time to revisit, to remember, to gain what more you need from God of all grace, who comforts and cares for all hearts that bear such works of Grief. Your Senior Minister in the Interim, ~ Gary
